[Time] He may not have been thinking about it at the time, but Pope Benedict, in the course of his recent U.S. visit may have dealt a knockout blow to the liberal American Catholicism that has challenged Rome since the early 1960s. He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his "deep shame" during his meeting with victims of the Church's sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he "gets" this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers — and in the process, neutralized the last great rallying point for what was once a feisty and optimistic style of progressivism.
The liberal rebellion in American Catholicism has dogged Benedict and his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. "Vatican II," which overhauled much of Catholic teaching and ritual, had a revolutionary impact on the Church as a whole. It enabled people to hear the Mass in their own languages; embraced the principle of religious freedom; rejected anti-Semitism; and permitted Catholic scholars to grapple with modernity.
But Vatican II meant even more to a generation of devout but restless young people in the U.S. Rather than a course correction, Terrence Tilley, now head of the Fordham University's theology department, wrote recently, his generation perceived "an interruption of history, a divine typhoon that left only the keel and structure of the church unchanged." They discerned in the Council a call to greater church democracy, and an assertion of individual conscience that could stand up to the authority of even the Pope. So, they battled the Vatican's birth-control ban, its rejection of female priests and insistence on celibacy, and its authoritarianism.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1737323,00.html#ixzz0omkvqiOp
1 comment:
Great comment by Terence Tilley on the hurricane called Vatican II ("Terrence Tilley...wrote recently, his generation perceived "an interruption of history, a divine typhoon that left only the keel and structure of the church unchanged." ) We must not overlook the war on the Church's moral code, especially today, Pentecost when the Gospel so clearly states,"If anyone loves Me, he will keep my commandments." As a 12-year-old hearing the many confused religious return from summer institutes on Vat II in 1966, I noticed right away how they had the moral law twisted around. "Vatican II did away with mortal sin," I heard over and over from many of these soon-to-be-very-sad souls, when the false gospel cost them their calling. It's high-water mark is ebbing now, especially as more and more of the great deception is stripped away (i.e., that nowhere in the writings of V2 are anywhere their great 'mandates' for almost anything they did.) But it is true, at least the keel and gunwales mostly have held, altho' at a truly horrific cost to souls and to the Church. Now a time of rebuilding and penance lies at hand.
Self-sacrifice, not self-realization; charity, not 'love'; Truth, not feeling.
Ave Crux Spes Unica.
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